Glasshouses, Royal Botanic Garden

Glasshouses are a complex of greenhouses within the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The oldest of them, Tropical Palm House, was built in 1834. In the 1860s, The Temperate Palm House was added. The building, designed by Robert Matheson, is 22 m high. Greenhouses are inhabited by about 3,000 plants from 10 climate zones - from rainforest to desert areas.

The original set of plants in the greenhouses was selected under the direction of the outstanding Scottish botanist John Hutton Balfour (1808-1884). The greenhouses underwent the first major expansion in 1967. The innovative pavilion was constructed at that time: the 128x18.25 m building designed by George AH Pearce (1913-2005) has the entire load-bearing structure outside, allowing maximum internal use space.

One of the most interesting plants in greenhouses is the royal victoria, also known as the victoria amazonica - a giant water lily, whose floating leaves reach up to 4 m in diameter and are able to lift an adult weighing 70 kg.